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Cabinet and Chassis Restoration and RefinishingFor help with cabinet or chassis restoration (non-electrical), please leave a message here.

My uneducated interpretation of this is that a surface protection has been removed and if only I could remove the remainder - clean it thoroughly then say spray lacquer the surface it would come back to an approximation of it's original appearance.

I'm going to attempt this with a scrap set but it would be interesting to know if anyone has already done it and what techniques/products were employed.

If the grill is removable I think it might be worth putting it in the dishwasher?
I tried this with a gold anodised aluminium grill from a Bush radio, came up lovely and clean but took all the colour from the anodising!
Had to spray it to get the appearance correct.

I wonder if the original finish was electroplating, but maybe vacuum deposition like for the silvering on a telescope mirror or the metallisation on a CD or balloon mylar film might work, if it could be arranged at an economic price. Not easy! and re-chroming now is fabulously expensive.... add in the ROHS fears of chromium VI.

David

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Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done

I think the original finish is some sort of transparent patterned lacquer. It's very thin, and anything aggressive enough to deal with grease stains wrecks it. It doesn't help that radios like Party Boys tend to have spent part of their lives as kitchen sets so are often filthy.

This doesn't mean the radios become unusable of course, or even look particularly damaged, but the original finish is lost. I've considered spraying the grilles matt black in the past but never actually done it.

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